Memory Soundscape

Audio File

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V2bju3132nx_g0fTPQFk9Qt2ZEgd32W0/view?usp=sharing

Concept

          In my project, I try to depict the homesickness I felt on a sleepless night during a two-week study trip to Taiwan. By then, I was twelve years old and it was the first time that I traveled without my family. I missed my family so much that I couldn’t fall asleep. I listened to the snores of my sleeping companions, the fan, and the whispers of the wind chime. The wind chime sound reminded me of my grandpa’s bike bells, sending me back to the school days before the trip when my grandpa picked me up from school. I was swaying between the reality of homesickness and the memory of my way home on grandpa’s bike until I fell asleep. 

          At the beginning of my project, I created the actual sounds I heard that night. These sounds faded just like my consciousness. The wind chime sound grew louder and deeper. At the same time, I use the sound of curtain drawstring and the plastic package to create a vague sense of uneasiness which is resulted from my homesickness. The messy sound suddenly ends because my memory of grandpa’s bike bell brought me warmth.  I integrate the sound of the bike bell and a click sound, with no background noises, to create the peacefulness of being with my grandpa. But such a fantasy didn’t last long and I swayed between the memory and the reality of being away from home. The moment I realized that I was actually far from home and my family, the memory of grandpa’s bike actually enhanced my homesickness. The bike rings and the click started to gather speed and became messy, which presented the increased homesickness by the memory. The struggle died down when I fell asleep, shown through the sound of Zheng. And in the sleep, the ringing sound of the bike bell and that of the wind chime mingled together to be the only sound in the world.  

Process

Recording

          I divide the sounds in my project into three categories: 1) the actual sounds that sound exactly as they are; 2) the imitational sounds that mimic other sounds and 3) the abstract sounds that represent my feelings. I intend the first two categories as landmarks of my memory while leaving the space for imagination through my third category of sounds. For the first category, I recorded my snores, the noises of the fans, and the bike bell using the Tascam. For the second category, I tried to create the wind chime sounds by hitting a glass bowl with a spoon, hitting a cup made of metal with my key, and hitting two cups made of metal. In this way, I created multiple tones that enrich my wind chime sounds. For the third category, I recorded the sound of rubbing a plastic bag and sliding the curtain drawstrings to create an uneasy feeling. I hit a wooden desk with a wooden stick to create the click sound with a deep, rich echo, which represents a meditation state. I use the sound of dropping the cornmeal to a glass bowl to create a short moment of chaos at the end, which serves as a summary of the mixed feeling I felt, with the final sound of an enhanced bike bell ring being a conclusion.

          At first, I wanted to use the traffic sounds to present the way back home from school on my grandpa’s bike. But then I decided that, since it was a memory of a memory, it was quite vague and abstract. Therefore, I chose to use abstract sounds to represent my feelings. I also used phones to record some sounds because the Tascam was run out. Therefore, some of the sounds are in mono status.

Editing

          In the editing phase, I experimented with different effects. At first, I tried to use Distortion on the wind chime sounds to create a feeling of homesickness. But then I decided that the wind chime sounds should be consistent as a landmark and used other sounds to create the uneasiness. I applied Flanger to these sounds to thicken them. I used a lot of Echo and Reverb on the bike bell and wind chime sound to increase the depth of my memory. For the wind chime sound creation, I once tried to copy the bike bell rings and put them into different tracks, then use Pitch shifter to adjust the pitch of the sound. But the changes were awkward so I decided to record other sounds instead.  For noise reduction, I only use Denoise on the bike bell sound because I recorded other sounds in a quiet place. I adjust the envelopes of volume to make the fade-in and fade-out effect.

Conclusion

Coco’s Feedback: “I think your soundscape is in accord with your concept, especially for the beginning and the end. They gave me a mixed feeling of reality and mess. But I feel that the piece is too smooth and steady and lacks a climax. Also, I think you can add some other elements to describe the warmth you felt when memorizing your grandpa’s bike because the combination of the clicking sounds and the bike sounds seems to be too plain and gives a cold feeling” (Coco 2020). 

Coco accurately points out the problem of my project: the whole piece is too plain. I tried to create peacefulness to represent the effect of overlaying memories. In other words, the uneasiness is not the dominant element in my project, but rather the notion that the memory of memorizing may blur and neutralize the emotions. Still, it may sound boring because it lacks ups and downs. I intended to create the climax at the end by increasing the volume and creating echos. However, the frequency spectrum is not diverse enough, which makes the piece very thin. Also, I have some problems with the pan adjustment, as some of the tracks are in the mono mode. In the future, I want to try more sounds and effects to create a climax and fluctuations in my project.

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